Antique Electronics Autopsy: Knock-Em Out Boxing

The search for technical information on this mysterious game begins. See if you can find more than Caleb Kraft did.

In 1979, the absolute state of the art in virtual boxing was unleashed on the world. Bambino's Boxing, a small table-top video game, allows players to feel the power, excitement, and strategy of boxing. At least, that is what the commercial says.

As you can see, this version of boxing is about as rudimentary as it gets, but there's something enticing about that beautiful vacuum fluorescent display (VFD).

Unfortunately, I was not able to find much information at all on the game. I have the name of the company, Bambino, as well as "EMIX Corp.," which is printed on the internal boards. That's about it. I can't find any schematics or a downloadable version of the manual. Heck, I can't even find much information about the company itself.

I'm tossing this one out there as a call for information. Can anyone tell me more about this beast?

Not bad looking, though maybe a bit darkened with age.

That glorious VFD in action.

Buttons and labels are all in great condition, with minimal wear and tear.

Bottom of the unit. The label is in surprisingly good condition.

Here you can see the basic operating instructions. I didn't play the game much. It is hard to compete with modern gaming in terms of interactivity.

Continue to the next page, where I open it up, and we can peek at the insides.

This is a brand page for the EMIX trademark by Emix Corporation in SAGAMIHARA, KANAGAWA, , . Write a review about a product or service associated with this EMIX trademark. Or, contact the owner Emix Corporation of the EMIX trademark by filing a request to communicate with the Legal Correspondent for licensing, use, and/or questions related to the EMIX trademark.

On Friday, July 28, 1978, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for EMIX by Emix Corporation, SAGAMIHARA, KANAGAWA. The USPTO has given the EMIX trademark serial number of 73180077. The current federal status of this trademark filing is CANCELLED - SECTION 8. The correspondent listed for EMIX is ? of *****, *****, ***** ***** . The EMIX trademark is filed in the category of Musical Instrument Products . The description provided to the USPTO for EMIX is ELECTRONIC ORGANS.

I remember using OTP MCU even 13 years backs, just because of huge difference in price of the OTP MCUs compared to the ROM based (programmable) MCUs. For mass scale production OTP MCUs was the choice. But no feature enhancement, no upgradability!! Things are much easier now a days!! Amazingly things have changed so much in electronics!! Contemporary video gaming has evolved to be so different and in future that too might converge towards a common gadget for everything. :)

Fascinating. The datasheet of that MCU does not have a date on it - pity. It has 48-v capable IO lines, and they do say it is suitable for driving VFDs directly. 1K of ROM and 80 bytes of 4-bit RAM, and it does BCD arithmetic, suggesting it may have been aimed at the pocket calculator market. It has some surprising features for an old chip - configurable pullups on the I/O, bit manipulation instructions, built-in clock generator. If it wasn't an OTP (One-time-programmable) chip it would be fun to have a play with.